UN, global groups to Phl gov’t: Drop murder case vs CPA chief

 BAGUIO CITY – Messages of solidarity and global support poured in for Cordillera Peoples Alliance chairperson, Windel Bolinget who was charged by police with what the CPA called a “trumped-up murder case.”
    Various organizations in the Philippines and abroad issued statements of condemnation for accusations of police against Bolinget, showing strong support for the “falsely accused indigenous leader and human rights defender who has been a vocal critic of the Duterte regime.”
    Through a statement from the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), UN human rights experts also joined in by calling on Philippine authorities to drop the charge against Bolinget.
    “Human rights defenders in the Philippines continue to be red-tagged, labeled as ‘terrorists’ and ultimately killed in attempts to silence them and delegitimise their work,” they said.
    UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Mary Lawlor said, “It (the case) is believed to be a fabricated charge aimed at silencing him and other indigenous rights defenders and the charge should be dropped.”
    The experts added unfounded charges and accusations were damaging not only to the individual, but also to other human rights defenders and civil society actors in the country.
    Aisah Mariano, CPA- Deputy Secretary General bared these saying the Anglican Church of Canada and other religious formations, in a letter addressed to the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marc Garneau, urged the Canadian government to “respond to the deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines citing the fabricated murder charge against Bolinget and the massacre of nine Tumandok Indigenous community leaders in Panay last year.”
    The slain Tumandok leaders have also been opposing development aggression and the militarization of their communities.
    A petition to drop the “fabricated charge against Bolinget” is circulating online and has already gathered more than a thousand signatures in a couple of weeks.
    The Manila, Philippines/Bogor, Indonesia/Rome, Italy International Land Coalition Asia (ILC Asia) and Global Secretariat of the International Land Coalition also released a statement “urgently requesting the Philippines government to drop the murder charge against indigenous rights defender, Windel Bolinget, who presented himself to the Philippine Bureau of Investigation (NBI) under the Department of Justice after a “shoot-to-kill” order had been issued should he resist arrest.”
    “All the evidence suggests that the charges are trumped-up. We condemn the criminalization against Bolinget, the Chairperson of ILC member organization CPA, for doing his peaceful work in protecting the rights of indigenous peoples,” said the statement released by Andita Listyarini, ILC- Asia communications officer.
    “We believe that this is a step to silence the voices of indigenous communities in the Philippines, who have been fighting for their rights against large-scale mining projects and other development projects that pose a threat to their land rights.”
    ILC is a global coalition of 250 multilateral and civil society member organizations based in 78 countries, of which 54 covering 13 countries are in Asia, including the Philippines.